Opening line

'The R on Refills lost its legs."

SHHHHH!

I bought one of those portable, flexible keyboards for the laptop to make it easier in transcribing the MS and most noticable is the lack of sound other than an odd rubberish type of sound. I am so far disconcerted over the lack of noise. It is too quiet and lacks the rhythm that the manual typewriters have. One advantage is that I can place it closer to the edge of the desk and ease the wrists. That being said, it lacks panache. It is black and fully utilitarian to the pont of being waterproof and, according to the leaflet of instructions, fogproof which would make it handy when the fog rolls into the study, or those languid days on the coast. Will it improve anything? More importantly, how will it affet what is written sinceI still spend far too much time looking at the screen and letting my spelling mistakes interupt the speed of the writing. Perhaps I remain a Luddite.

Surrealistic Dilemna

The Muse apparently possessed the new typewriter because a story suddenly developed from it. This Muse put me into a state of confusion because this story turned out to be more fun than the serious literary novel. I found myself at this same place last summer at about the same time. The story is fanciful, about letters and words slipping their moorings and dripping out of pages, pulled by gravity and seeking their source at the center of the earth from where all words rise. The problem is that I am enjoying this story more than the novel and feeling guilty in that enjoyment (please don't use this opportunity to comment on underlying Lutheran guilt). I feel sort of naughty in writing silliness or surrealism. Then I look at the writers I've enjoyed reading and find the surreal ones are more to my liking. Vonnegut, Borges (my current read), Marquez, and the like. Part of the problem may be that the section of the novel that I'm working on is realistic and less surreal, primarily because the central character of this section is realistic where the other main character "hears voices." This reminds me too much last summer's novel in a month experiment which was surreal. Or the iguana story which was plainly surrealistic. Maybe the problem is less of a problem after all.

writing machine

Yesterday I found another writing machine. This is a portable, pre-internet, nearly laptop that only runs out of energy when I do which writes in italics and the cost was less than a pack of cigarettes. Made in West Germany, the Olympic de Lux italic typerwriter has fired new sparks of creativity. Writing on it is a different experiences with a different dynamic. For example, when I write on the computer, as I am now doing, I stare at the screen and watch the letters form on the screen. These letters, however, have no tangible aspect to them. They are the result of electric sparks of some sort energizing tiny, nearly microscopic squares. As letters they do not fundamentally exist. When I type (or write with pen on paper) the letters exist in both form and physical reality. I could take the paper and cut out the individual letters with an exacto knife. Not so with the computer. As I write on the computer, as I said, I watch the letters form into words. On the typewriter I hunch over and stare at the center of the keyboard with the letters T, G, H, Y within direct view, but out of focus. By not looking at the paper I am not concerned about revisions. The errors are legion but I don't pay attention. Contrast this to the screen, where I am constantly aware of the errors, frequently backspacing to cure the problem, all of which interrupts the flow. Also on the typewrite is the click-clack of the keys, a far different sort of noise than the muted tick, tick of the keyboard. Add the ding of the bell and the call slide the carriage with the return arm and I've found a more satisfying way of writing. The only problem I have is that of transcribing from the typed page to the computer. I may try scanning the typed page into a computer file. Of course, this all may have to do with the novelty of having an italic typewriter.

Cocktails

Blame this on my previous experience as a bartender. Why blame needs to be placed is well beyond me but writers looking for an excuse out of a given behavior look for blame and try to place it on some event, person, object, out of body experience, they may have had. Of course, they may only have desired to have the experience so that they can claim blame. I am placing my blame firmly in the lap of Greg Matt, my bartender mentor. I am applying this blame to the recent upsurge in popularity of sophisticated cocktails to which I can give a hearty "thank heavens." I know this is true because the new Old Crown Coffee place has a bona fide bartender who knows his way around the spirits. He also makes an excellent Manhattan. The Manhattan, not the bartender is the real subject of this essay. He was only a sideline and he can now be ignored. The Manhattan is a delightful blend of rye whiskey, sweet (French to the cogniscenti) vermouth, a dash of bitters garnished with marichino cherries. On July 4, the day we celebrated the end of British tyranny, I introduced a friend to the Manhattan. He was caught in its allure. Even the name conjures up images of an old New York seen only in old movies like the Thin Man series (Nick and Nora, where are you when cocktail hour comes?). Now he knows what to order when the cocktail waitress comes around and asking for beer is de classe. He can look at her and say with authority, "I'll have a Manhattan, please." If he would specify rye whiskey instead of bourbon, she would realize he was a man not to be trifled with. Where the story would go from here only you can imagine and we pray his wife doesn't find out.
Cocktails are back! What next? Will pipe smoking gain social acceptance? One can hope.

Books for writers, my suggestions

On with the list.

The first one I recommend getting when money is available (at more than $40 new, sad to say) is the Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus. This book has done more than any other to pull my ass out of difficulties in the revision stage. While I may not use the suggested synonym, it sparks an idea or a thought or a word that improves the piece at hand. It is an investment better than a dictionary. As far as other dictionaries go, I have little advice. If you want the king, then a Webster's Unabridged makes a great doorstop, bookend, and has words you'll not find elsewhere. Another one I find handy (out of print as far as I know) is the Follett Vest-Pocket 50,000 Words. This one has no meanings but gives the proper spellings. It's a great pre-computer resource for editors that has saved this poor speller from embarrassment. I know the computer can do much, but as I teach my students—spell-checker will betray you.

For the mechanics of writing I'll give you two: Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss and The Elements of Style by Stunk and White. The first is a lot of fun, but be aware that she writes from a British English point of view and the punctuation is a bit different. The second is the standard by which the other grammars are judged. The illustrated edition has wonderful, sophisticated illustrations.

Writers need inspiration. A couple of my favorites you already have, If You Want to Write by Brenda Ueland and Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. Ueland is the one I frequently reread when I need a boost. Despite being a bit dated (after all she wrote it before WWII) she speaks to me as a dear friend would. Two more I strongly recommend are Why I Write from George Orwell and The Triggering Town by Richard Hugo. Orwell gives great lessons on clarity. His six rules are worth the price of the book. (You'll have to find them in the book yourself.) Hugo looks like it is written for poets but his use of places for inspiration and subject matter apply to all writers. Three other similar books are The Writing Life by Annie Dillard, Negotiating with the Dead by Margret Atwood, and The Faith of a Writer by Joyce Carol Oats. These three take very different approaches to writing and approach it in different styles but are worth listening to.

Annie Dillard shows up again in Living by Fiction. I'm mentioning her in offering books on writing fiction. My favorite on fiction writing is John Gardner's On Becoming a Novelist which I've marked, tagged, highlighted and glossed in the margins countless times. To these I would add the classic Aspects of the Novel by E. M Forster. I should tell you that these don't provide recipes for good fiction. They open doors to your method of writing fiction. For sheer fun (or an absurd challenge) consider No Plot? No Problem by Chris Baty who shows the way to write a novel in 30 days. Yes, it can be done because I've got a rough draft of a novel written in that time. For a couple of recipe type books The Writers Journey from Christopher Volger gives the mythic outline that undergirds the vast majority of plot lines of books and movies. His diagram on p. 8 could easily be used for an outline. I've thought of using it for a quickly written novella of about 30-40,000 words. Writing the Novel by Lawrence Block is another one that works through the writing process one step at a time. In the end, however, each writer finds his or her own way.

Before I get to my final suggestions I need to comment on the reading suggestions made by all these writers. I take them very much to heart and have struggled to read many of them. The suggestions given have become my curriculum and I have found their recommendations as solid as any other reading list. When the same author is mentioned more than once, like Melville or Greene, I pay attention. I haunt the local used bookstores for copies of their suggested authors. Learning to read like a writer has been a chore for me. I went through Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose in the hope of instant insight. She helped some and gave directions to more books to read. I only wish I had more time to read.

Some final suggestions. The first has nothing to do with writing but everything to do with communication: Conversation by Theodore Zeldin. I was so struck by Zeldin when I heard him on the radio that I pulled over and wrote the information. He discusses the need for bona fide communication. It's a short book, hard to find, but worth the effort. The second suggestion concerns where a writer writes, hence the title: A Writer's Space. Eric Maisel considers the need for writing space, a located place where writing takes place. Too often there is the assumption that writing can take place anywhere. This is not true. Maisel points you to the importance of the place from which good writing comes. I'm leery to make the third suggestion because it doesn't quite fit with the rest of the books on the list. This is Break Every Rule by Carole Maso. I was introduced to this through a class I took last year and am rereading now. Maso causes me to rethink the process and product of writing. She raised a critical question for me, one that I have as yet to answer: What is my creative and artistic goal? Her book is about as far from a how to as you could find. In rereading it, I am drawn more and more into her questions.

I hope this helps.
I offer these writers because they have helped me. One remarkable aspect about writing: those distant and those dead can continue to talk to me . I only hope that I can add to the conversation.

W